Eastern Bluebird
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/109065509
Blue Jay
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/100879364
Indigo Bunting
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/82411925
Azure Bluet
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/56537093
Many gentians are blue, like this one I found high up on a mountain: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/227808984
Blue-eyed grass:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/217564355
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/161835258
Lots of CA scrub jays here in Oregon.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/230146275
Love our native camas, both in my garden and, here, on the side of Mt. Hood.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/226972292
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/223156265
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/164265652
Of course the damselflies.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/230636367
And the occasional butterfly.
Well… besides almost every single European damselfly…
I have this purple, blue Iris
This and This Hyacinth
These eggs
This cicada
For a couple weeks, these are everywhere in my area
And then I have a handfull of small blue plants, which I won’t bother to list.
Finding blue in the wild is always exillerating for me, because why would an organism not camouflage itsself?? must be special or dangerous.
My favourite photo of a blue organism is probably this cuckoo wasp:
Apart from that, there are a bunch of other blue things I have found (flowers, birds, other arthropods, cnidarians) and probably too many to list them all here.
Lance-tipped darner: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/241019237
Canada darner: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/133010213
Summer azure: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/54684389
The projection on the head, is an extention of the exoskeleton. Its use has a few dubious explainations online.
“The first recorded legend about Fulgorawas probably in the year 1705 when the German artist-naturalist
Maria Sybilla Merian published her book ‘Metamorphosis
Insectorum Surinamensis’. For whom it might concern, her
stepfather was a Flemish flower painter and one of
Merian’s first teachers! In her beautifully illustrated book
she wrote that the head of the lantern-fly lit up at night
when there were males and females present, and it was
bright enough to read by” - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266607470_THE_FULGORIDAE_HEMIPTERA_FULGOROMORPHA_OF_GUATEMALA
Of course since they have no parts which can light up, obviously thats not it.
Some blogs quote the snout being used to get under bark to reach sap, though it has a proboscus underneath for that.
Sexual selction is always a possibility though…
“The function of head process has been postulated, including sexual selection, mimicry and bioluminescence (Hogue,
1984; Zolnerowich, 1992; O’Brien, 2002; Goemans, 2006). But measurements of
female and male head process showed no sex-based difference, and evolution
examination of fulgorid head process suggested its shape across distantly related
lineages seemed to be convergent, head morphology may be adaptive (Urban and
Cryan, 2009)” -https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324617471_A_new_genus_and_species_of_Mimarachnidae_Hemiptera_Fulgoromorpha_Fulgoroidea_from_mid-Cretaceous_Burmese_amber
So the best current guess is likely “More research needed”
I feel in my travels I often find invertebrates outside the known range. But then the known range is often from a handful of observations. Range extensions due to inat I feel are pretty much everyday at this stage across different species. Especially for species which people arent commonly looking for.
Male Calopteryx virgo: a beautiful metallic blue damselfly.
The animal that made me an active iNat user.
Thyreus himalayensis (Himalayan Cloak-and-dagger Bee · 연루리알락꽃벌붙이)
Unknown Chrysis cuckoo wasp species (청벌속)
Pseudozizeeria maha (Pale Grass Blue · 남방부전나비)
Favonius taxila (산녹색부전나비)
Unknown Lepidopteran larva
Chrysochus chinensis (중국청람색잎벌레)
Coenagrion johanssoni (Arctic Bluet · 참실잠자리)
Entoloma serrulatum, the Blue Edge Pinkgill. It’s not a very vibrant blue, per say, but you can definitely see it. In terms of basidiomycete fungi, I rarely ever stumble across anything blue. As a matter of fact, I believe this is the only blue agaric I’ve ever documented.
And then there’s everybody’s favorite, Chlorociboria aeruginosa, the Turquoise Elfcup. A vibrant teal ascomycete, who’s mycelium turns the piece of wood it has colonized a blue-green color! This teal wood has been used for hundreds of years under the name “Green Oak”, in carpentry and wood crafting.
I love the E. hochstetter! New Zealand seems like an awesome place for mushrooms. It’s cool how its on one of your banknotes as well!
It seems like Entoloma can be quite the colorful genus, no matter where you are in the world. Definitely nothing as perfectly blue as that growing up here in Western North America.
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias):
Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis):
Steller’s Jay (Cyanicitta stelleri):
Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor):
Purple Shore Crab (Hemigrapsus nudus):
Woodhouse’s Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma woodhouseii):
Echo Azure (Celastrina echo):
Pacific Forktail (Ischnura cervula):
American Dune Grass (Leymus mollis):
Wood Forget-me-not (Myosotis sylvatica):
Ebony Jewelwing (Calopteryx maculata):
Yeah, I quite like our notes since they show off different birds, plants and organisms.
The $50 has the sky-blue mushroom (Werewere-kokako) and the Kokako (Grey bird with blue wattles). Our $100 has a South Island Lichen moth, which I think is also pretty cool.
Yeah I feel privilaged with some of our fungi diversity, like this one 30 min (Each way) track about 30 mins south of me has 178 fungi recorded so far, with no doubt more. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?nelat=-42.40218678989483&nelng=171.2744031298074&subview=map&swlat=-42.41150294657205&swlng=171.24968389152616&taxon_id=47170
I can tell you what blue organism I would really like to photograph: a blue morpho. They are one of the taxa that first piqued my facination with the Neotropics. I have seen them, but as far as photgraphing one, they are definitely suitable for that other thread, “What is your ‘white whale’?”
In the meantime, here is a big Phormia fly, standing out from the greenbottle flies by its bigness and blueness. (Sorry the substrate isn’t as esthetically pleasing as the flies themselves.)
Wow!!
Here’s my favorite bluey (aside from the one who’s parents are Chilli and Bandit), the Azure Bluet.
(Mitey blue)
Neat!
I thought Bluey’s (the cartoon character) dad was named Bandit or something, not Badger.
as elias105 posted, gentians can be violently blue:
Blue is not uncommon also in Boraginaceae:
And for a bit more offort to see the blue;
Calypogeia azurea;
Its bluish is due to very bright blue oil bodies,
which I have seen, but could not take a picture of them showing proper color, but they are the third picture in its taxon page.
